Safety device in imitation gun

ABSTRACT

A safety device in an imitation gun having a magazine mounted removably to a gun main body for preventing the risk of discharge of a remaining bullet which can take place after removing the magazine from the gun main body. In the imitation gun having the magazine being mounted removably to the gun main body and a piston device for supplying a bullet inside the magazine to a bullet loading part of the gun main body and injecting compressed air to the bullet arranged in the bullet loading part, a trigger member  15  having a engagement counterpart for engaging with an engagement part at a side of a piston of the piston device  22  in order to retract the piston along with a discharge operation at a driving part provided in the gun main body and advancing the piston by disengagement of the engagement is provided. The trigger member is provided in the gun main body movably in the advancing/retracting directions of the piston and movably in such a direction that the engagement counterpart is released from the engagement part. A returning spring  16  for assisting movement in the same direction when the piston advances is provided in the trigger member  15 , and a resilient member  36  provided in the magazine is used as a means for biasing the trigger member in a direction of the engagement of the engagement part with the engagement counterpart.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a safety device in an imitation gun having a magazine to be mounted removably to a gun main body and a piston device for supplying a bullet inside the magazine to a bullet loading part of the gun main body and injecting compressed air to the bullet disposed at the bullet loading part.

RELATED ART

A gun called airsoft gun, toy gun, or the like uses a spherical bullet which is produced in conformity with a certain standard and commonly known as BB bullet or the like, and such gun include those provided removably with a magazine (cartridge clip) in which supplementary bullets are charged and those not provided with the magazine. In the gun of the magazine removable type, a bullet sometimes remains as retained in a bullet loading part after the magazine is removed from the gun main body. In such case, it is necessary to pay attention since the remaining bullet can be discharged in a certain type of gun if a trigger is inadvertently pulled, and it is necessary to draw attention in the case of guns especially for juveniles. Such problem does not occur when all of the remaining bullets are shot, but, since it is sometimes impossible to shoot all the bullets depending on time and circumstances, a countermeasure is desired.

The gun that is subject to the inadvertent discharge includes those satisfying condition that a bullet is remained in the bullet loading part and a function of injecting compressed air is effective when the magazine is removed from the gun main body. For example, in the case of a gun having a magazine that is integrally provided with a tank in which a compressed gas is charged, since the gas is not injected when a trigger is pulled after the magazine is removed from a gun main body, it is safe to mention that such gun is free from the risk of inadvertent bullet discharge. Also, in a gun having a motor-driven piston device, such as an electric gun, it is possible to take a countermeasure of turning off a switch by removing a magazine from a gun main body since it is possible to interlock a magazine attachment/removal with opening/closing of a motor driving circuit.

In contrast, in the case of a manual gun for juveniles having such a structure that a piston is manually driven and compressed air is injected when a trigger is pulled and having a relatively simple structure and relatively small power, a bullet remains in a gun main body and a function of injecting the compressed air is effective after a magazine is removed from the gun main body, thereby satisfying the discharge conditions. Therefore, such gun has a risk that the remaining bullet is discharged by a discharge operation after the removal of the magazine from the gun main body, and it is highly necessary to provide the gun with a countermeasure. However, it is useful to prevent the risk of remaining bullet discharge that can occur due to carelessness after removing the magazine from the gun main body also in guns other than the aforementioned gun.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems that the Invention is to Solve

The present invention has been accomplished in view of the above-explained circumstances, and an object thereof is to prevent the risk of remaining bullet discharge that can occur after the removal of a magazine from the gun main body in a gun having the magazine that is removably mounted to the gun main body. Also, another object of the present invention is to provide a safety device in an imitation gun, which is capable of preventing accidental firing of the gun that can be caused by carelessness or the like.

Means for Solving the Problems

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides an imitation gun comprising a magazine to be removably mounted to a gun main body and a piston device for supplying a bullet inside the magazine to a bullet loading part of the gun main body and injecting compressed air to the bullet disposed at the bullet loading part, wherein: a trigger member having a engagement counterpart for engaging with an engagement part at a side of a piston of the piston device in order to retract the piston along with a discharge operation at a driving part provided in the gun main body and advancing the piston when released from the engagement is provided, the trigger member being provided in the gun main body movably in advancing/retracting directions of the piston and movably in a direction in which the engagement counterpart is released from the engagement part and being provided with a returning spring for assisting a movement to a same direction when the piston advances; and a resilient member provided in the magazine is used as a biasing means for biasing the trigger member in a direction in which the engagement part and the engagement counterpart are engaged.

In order to achieve a structure of supplying the bullet inside the magazine removably mounted to the gun main body to the gun loading part of the gun main body, the safety device according to the present invention is used for in imitation gun in which the bullet remains in the bullet loading part after the magazine is removed from the gun main body, and the piston device which serves to inject the compressed air to the remaining bullet is effective. The imitation gun satisfying the conditions includes the aforementioned manual gun for juveniles with a structure in which the piston is manually driven and the compressed air is injected when the trigger is pulled. However, since the piston device which serves to inject the compressed air to the remaining bullet is sometimes effective in the electric gun, for example, the present invention is also useful for the electric gun. The imitation gun used in the present invention means a gun which is not used for creating mayhem, in contrast to a gun used for creating mayhem, i.e. an actual gun.

In the safety device according to the present invention, a trigger member having a engagement counterpart that engages with an engagement part at a side of a piston of a piston device in order to retract the piston along with a discharge operation in a driving part provided in a gun main body and advances the piston when released from the engagement. The trigger member is provided in the gun main body movably in advancing/retracting directions of the piston and movably in a direction in which the engagement counterpart is released from the engagement part. That is, the trigger member is a part for connecting the driving part provided in the gun main body and the piston to each other and retracts the piston by transmitting to the piston a motion associated with the discharge operation in the driving part. Therefore, the engagement part is provided at the piston side, and the engagement counterpart is provided at the trigger member side, so that the engagement part and the engagement counterpart are engaged for retracting the piston, and the engagement between the engagement part and the engagement counterpart is released for advancing the piston. Thus, the trigger member is required to have a structure of being capable of moving in the advancing/retracting directions of the piston and being capable of moving in the direction in which the engagement counterpart is released from the engagement part, but the trigger member may be formed of a single part or a plurality of parts insofar as the above-described condition is satisfied.

In the case of the aforementioned manual gun, a manual trigger is used as the driving part. In such case, the driving part has a trigger part having a trigger provided movably in front/rear directions of the gun main body and a swingable part swingably attached to the trigger member, and the trigger part and the swingable part forms the trigger member. It is desirable that the swingable part has a structure of being swingable along with retraction by an operation of pulling the trigger and moving along a guide part inclined to the direction in which the engagement counterpart is released from the engagement part in the vicinity of a retraction limit position (the invention of claim 2). With such structure, it is possible to smoothly release the engagement counterpart from the engagement part due to inclination of only the swingable part with respect to the retracting trigger member.

The trigger member is provided with the returning spring for assisting the movement to the same direction when the piston advances. By the returning spring, it is possible to return the trigger member efficiently to an original position. The returning spring acts on the swingable part forming the trigger member and can be used for controlling an operation of the engagement part and the engagement counterpart described later in this specification.

The biasing for the trigger member in the direction in which the engagement part and the engagement counterpart are engaged during the retraction of the piston is a structure required for stability of the operation. As the biasing means, a pressurizing member may be provided in the magazine in such a fashion as to project externally from the magazine by a resilient member provided in the magazine (claim 3 of the present invention). Since the resilient member provided in the magazine has its front end side disposed at such a position that the front end side presses the bullet in a supply direction and has its rear end side supported by an inner wall of the magazine and the like, resiliency of the resilient member is utilized at the rear end side, and the pressurizing part is provided at the corresponding part of the magazine in such a fashion as to project externally from the magazine, so that the resiliency of the resilient member is exerted on the pressurizing part. Though it is possible to bias the pressurizing part in the direction in which the engagement part and the engagement counterpart are engaged without using the resiliency inside the magazine, it is possible to use the resiliency inside the magazine as described above, and such use rationalizes the structure.

Further, it is possible to provide a stopper capable of projecting into and retracting from a bullet feeding path in order to prevent the bullet remaining on the bullet feeding path for supplying the bullet inside the magazine to the bullet loading part of the gun main body from dropping out when the magazine is removed from the gun main body (invention of claim 4). Since the cause of the remaining bullet discharge is the bullet remaining in the bullet loading part of the gun main body, the prevention of dropping out of the bullet remaining in the bullet feeding path and the problem of remaining bullet discharge are separate problems, but it is possible to solve the problem that can occur in relation to the removal of the magazine from the gun main body by adding the slight modification to the gun main body.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an internal side view showing one example of a safety device in an imitation gun according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an internal side view showing the safety device and a bullet feeding path in the imitation gun.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an internal side view showing a left half of a gun main body, in which a peripheral part of the safety device is exploded.

FIG. 5 is an internal side view showing the left half of the gun main body, in which a part of the piston device is exploded.

FIG. 6 is an internal side view showing a right half of the gun main body.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a part of an operation process of the safety device in the imitation gun according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a part of the same operation process.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a part of an operation process in the state where a magazine is removed from the gun main body.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more details with reference to the embodiment shown in the drawings. Shown in FIG. 1 is one example of a safety device 10 in an imitation gun according to the present invention, and the illustrated gun has such a structure that a piston is manually driven when a trigger is pulled to thereby cause injection of compressed air, which is a manual gun for juveniles. In the drawings, a gun main body is denoted by 11, and the illustrated gun main body is provided with a trigger 12 serving as a driving part of the manual gun.

The driving part of the illustrated gun has a trigger side portion 13 having the trigger 12 provided movably in front/rear directions of the gun main body 11 and a swingable part 14 attached to the trigger side portion 13. The trigger side portion 13 is incorporated into an incorporation part provided in the gun main body movably in the front/rear directions as is the same as the piston, and the swingable part 14 is swingably and pivotally supported like a seesaw at a pivot 14 a that is a little rear from the trigger side portion 13, and the trigger side portion 13 and the swingable part 14 form a trigger member 15 (FIG. 4). The swingable part 14 is biased frontward and upward by a returning spring 16 provided between the swingable part 14 and the gun main body 11, so that an operation of a engagement counterpart 17 is controlled in a direction of departing from an engagement part 27. The trigger member 15 has a guide roller 18 at its rear part and the engagement counterpart 17 that retracts against the biasing force by the operation of pulling the trigger 12 and swings and inclines along with the retraction to be released from the engagement part 27 and has such a structure that the guide roller 18 is inclined to a rearward and downward direction to be located at a guide part 19 formed in the gun main body 11 to guide the release from the engagement part 27. Denoted by 19 a is a recessed part at a front end part of the guide part.

In order to incorporate the trigger side portion 13 movably in the front/rear directions, an incorporation portion 41B prepared in the gun main body 11 is provided substantially horizontally parallel to a bullet feeding path that is denoted by a reference numeral 41A and shown in FIG. 2 and the like. Shown in FIG. 6 is a right half of the gun main body 11 in which the incorporation portion 41B is provided, and shown in FIG. 3 is a vertical section as a part of a section of the magazine part.

The imitation gun to which the safety device 10 according to the present invention is applied is provided with a piston device 22 having a piston 21 that retracts along with a discharge operation in the driving part provided in the gun main body 11. The piston device 22 has a cylinder 23 disposed in a longitudinal direction at an upper part of a housing part 20 of the main body and a piston 21 which is capable of sliding inside the piston device 22, and a coil spring serving as a bullet discharge means 25 for injecting compressed air from a nozzle 24 at a front end part of the cylinder by driving the piston 21 is disposed in a compressed state between the piston device 22 and a piston device provision part rear wall. Denoted by 23 a is a cylinder positioning part, and denoted by 26 is a piston cup which is attached to a piston front end 21 a to enhance a sealing property to an inner surface of the cylinder.

The piston 21 is provided with the engagement part 27 serving as a part at the piston side for engaging with the engagement counterpart 17 of the trigger member 15. The illustrated engagement part 27 is formed as an upwardly recessed part at a lateral wall portion of the piston 21 and structured as engageably with and releasably from the engagement counterpart 17 standing up from below. Each of a front face upper part 17 a of the engagement counterpart 17 and a rear face lower part 27 a of the engagement part 27 is formed into a shape that is inclined to a frontward and downward direction in order to assist the engagement counterpart 17 to engage with the engagement part 27 from the rear direction. The provision of the engagement part 27 at the lateral wall part of the piston 21 corresponds to the structure of providing the incorporation portion 41B of the trigger member 15 substantially horizontally parallel to the bullet feeding path 41A and does not require another engagement member, thereby contributing to structure rationalization.

Inside the gun main body 11, a bullet loading cylinder 28 having a bullet loading part connected to a bullet loading opening 28 a which is laterally directed is disposed in front of the piston device provision part in such a fashion as to be capable of advancing and retracting, and the bullet loading cylinder 28 is provided at a rear part of a barrel 29 so that the bullet loading cylinder 28 and the barrel 29 are movable in frontward and rearward directions in an integral manner. A slidable frame part 30 is provided at a front end part of the barrel 29 for positioning the barrel 29 at a front end of the trigger side portion 13, and the frame part 30 presses an engagement part 28 b of the bullet loading cylinder 28 when the barrel 29 is retracted, so that the engagement part 28 b is moved rearward. Denoted by 28 c is a bullet loading stopper part that acts for opening the bullet loading opening 28 a by engaging with a trigger stopper part 13 c and advancing the bullet loading cylinder 28. Denoted by 31 is a hop up member which is used for correcting a course of bullet and provided in front of the bullet loading part.

The imitation gun to which the safety device 10 according to the present invention is applied has a magazine 33 to be removably mounted to a magazine housing part 34 of a gun main body grip part in order to supply a bullet 32. The magazine 33 has a bullet housing part 35 having a substantially U-shape inside thereof, and a coil spring which is capable of being formed into a substantially U-shape is provided in the bullet housing part 35 as a resilient member 36 for pressing the bullet 32. The resilient member 36 has its front end side disposed at a position at which the front end side presses the bullet 32 in a supply direction and has its rear end side supported by a wall face of the magazine and the like. Denoted by 37 is a bullet pressurizing part at the front end of the resilient member, and denoted by 38 is a spring bearing part at the rear end of the resilient member.

In order to make use of the resiliency at the rear end side of the resilient member 36 for the biasing of the swingable part 14, a corresponding part of the magazine 33 is opened, and a pressurizing member 40 that is capable of projecting externally from the magazine 33 when pressed by a projection 38 a of the spring bearing part 38 is provided in the opening. The pressurizing member 40 is rotatably and pivotably supported by the magazine 33 at its rear part 40 a and capable of vertical movement at its front part 40 b within a range of an arc-like groove 38 b provided in the magazine 33, so that the pressurizing member 40 contacts a projection 39 provided under the swingable part 14 of the trigger member 15 to exert a biasing force in the direction in which the engagement part 27 and the engagement counterpart 17 are engaged.

A bullet outlet 33 a at a front end part of the magazine 33 is connected to the bullet feeding path 41 connected to the bullet loading part, and a notch 42 which is notched to a lateral direction is formed at a wall face part of the magazine 33 forming the bullet outlet 33 a. A stopper 43 that is capable of projecting into and retracting from the notch part 42 is provided. The stopper 43 is provided to be capable of projecting into and retracting from the notch part 42 in order to prevent the bullet 32 remaining in the bullet feeding path 41A from dropping out when the magazine 33 is removed from the gun main body 11 and, also, achieves a function as a guiding member for so guiding the bullet 32 as to be fed to the bullet feeding path 41A by contacting the bullet 32 from a lateral direction in a magazine mounted state. In the illustrated case, since the bullet feeding path 41A is provided substantially horizontally parallel to the incorporation portion 41B of the trigger member, the stopper 43 is provided in addition to biasing by a spring 44 in order that the bullet 32 is fed toward the bullet feeding path 41A. Denoted by 45 and 46 are members for retaining the bullet 32 for preventing the bullet 32 from being fed to the barrel 29.

The imitation gun to which the safety device 10 according to the present invention having the above-described structure is applied operates as shown in FIGS. 7 to 9. Shown in FIG. 7-1 is a state in which the magazine 33 is set in the gun main body 11, where the stopper 43 is pressed in the lateral direction so that the bullet 32 inside the magazine 33 passes through the bullet feeding path 41A to be retained in the bullet loading part. In the magazine 33, the pressurizing member 40 is pressed upward by the biasing force of the resilient member 36 provided inside, so that the swingable part 14 of the trigger member 15 is moved upward to bring the engagement part 27 and the engagement counterpart 17 into an engageable state. When the trigger 12 is pulled, the trigger member 15 is retracted to engage the engagement part 27 with the engagement counterpart 17 (FIG. 7-2), so that the piston 21 starts to retract. When the guide roller 18 retracts the guide part 19 at the swingable part 14 of the trigger member 15, the engagement counterpart 17 moves downward. When the swingable part 14 moving along the inclined guide part 19 reaches to the vicinity of the retraction limit position, the engagement counterpart 17 is disengaged from the engagement part 27, and the thus-freed piston 21 instantly advances as being pressurized by the bullet discharge means 25, so that air inside the cylinder 23 is compressed and injected from the nozzle 24, thereby causing the bullet 32 at the bullet loading part to be discharged (FIG. 7-3).

When the trigger 12 is released, the trigger member 15 is advanced by the returning spring 16 to move in a direction of the original position. Simultaneously, in the course of the advancement of the engagement counterpart 17 of the swingable part 14 moving on the inclined guide part 19 (FIG. 8-1), the front face upper part 17 a of the engagement counterpart 17 moves over the rear face lower part 27 a of the engagement part 27 to be brought into the engagement state and returns to the original position while maintaining the engagement state (FIG. 8-2).

When the magazine 33 is removed from the gun main body 11, the pressurizing member 40 is not moved upward since the pressurizing member 40 does not receive the biasing force of the resilient member 36 inside the magazine. Therefore, since the guide roller 18 of the swingable part 14 of the trigger member 15 is in a state of being sunk in the recessed part 19 a in front of the guide part 19, the engagement part 27 and the engagement counterpart 17 are not engaged (FIG. 9-1). Therefore, even when the trigger 12 is pulled and the trigger member 15 is retracted, the piston 21 is not retracted (FIG. 9-2) since the engagement part 27 and the engagement counterpart 17 are not engaged, and discharge does not occur even when the bullet 32 is loaded at the bullet loading part. Also, when the magazine 33 is removed from the gun main body 11, the bullet 32 does not drop out even when the bullet 32 remains in the bullet feeding path 41A since the stopper 43 is rotated by the spring 44 to stop the bullet 32.

Due to the above-described structure and effect of the present invention, in a gun having a magazine removably mounted to a gun main body, it is possible to prevent the risk of discharge even when a bullet remains in the gun main body since the piston does not retract after the magazine is removed from the gun main body. Also, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a safety device in an imitation gun, which is reliably capable of preventing accidental firing of a gun caused by carelessness and the like after removing a magazine from a gun main body.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As described in the foregoing, the safety device in the imitation gun according to the present invention relates to a gun and useful for a manual gun and also for an electric gun among guns. It is also possible to utilize the present invention for a mechanical device that uses a trigger or the like as a driving part and generates compressed air by retracting and then advancing a piston to discharge an object similar to a bullet by the compressed air. 

1. A safety device in an imitation gun comprising a magazine to be removably mounted to a gun main body and a piston device for supplying a bullet inside the magazine to a bullet loading part of the gun main body and injecting compressed air to the bullet disposed at the bullet loading part, characterized in that a trigger member having a engagement counterpart for engaging with an engagement part at a side of a piston of the piston device in order to retract the piston along with a discharge operation at a driving part provided in the gun main body and advancing the piston by disengagement of the engagement is provided, the trigger member being provided in the gun main body movably in advancing/retracting directions of the piston and movably in a direction in which the engagement counterpart is released from the engagement part and being provided with a returning spring for assisting a movement to a same direction when the piston advances; and a resilient member provided in the magazine is used as a biasing means for biasing the trigger member to a direction in which the engagement part and the engagement counterpart are engaged.
 2. The safety device in the imitation gun according to claim 1, wherein the driving part comprises a trigger part having a trigger provided movably in front/rear directions of the gun main body and a swingable part swingably attached to the trigger part, the trigger part and the swigging part forming the trigger member, and the swingable part being capable of swinging along with retraction by an operation of pulling the trigger and moving along a guide part inclined to a direction in which the engagement counterpart is released from the engagement part in the vicinity of a limit position of the retraction.
 3. The safety device in the imitation gun according to claim 1, characterized by comprising, as biasing means for biasing the trigger member in the direction in which the engagement part and the engagement counterpart are engaged, a pressurizing member that is provided in the magazine in such a fashion as to project externally from the magazine by the resilient member provided in the magazine.
 4. The safety device in the imitation gun according to claim 1, comprising a stopper that is capable of projection into and retracting from a bullet feeding path in order to prevent the bullet remaining on the bullet feeding path for supplying the bullet inside the magazine to the bullet loading part of the gun main body form dropping out, when the magazine is removed from the gun main body. 